Hi Tweets:

On Sunday, I took advantage of the nice weather and hiked around the Sunrise area for high alpine birds. The area is still heavily, snow covered en route to the Mt Fremont lookout tower. It will be a couple of weeks until most of the snow melts. Good hiking shoes and poles are highly recommended to cross of of the 'dicey' snowfields. Once you get to the junction for the Mt. Fremont trail, it is pretty much snow free. I pretty much had the entire mountain to myself and saw less than a dozen people along the higher trails until noon.

The beautiful area did not disappoint for quality birds. In the early morning, I found a pair of PINE GROSBEAKS near Frozen Lake and heard distance, booming SOOTY GROUSE. There were several WHITE TAILED PTARMIGANS en route to the Mt. Fremont lookout tower. One pair was found at a distance below the tower near the snowfields. Two more males were found along the drier, boulder strewn areas. Most of the fancy, alpine chickens were about 90% from attaining their summer plumage. Another nice surprise but in the distance were a few BLACK SWIFTS and four MOUNTAIN GOATS. Single GRAY CROWNED ROSYFINCHES were actively feeding along snowfields about 100 yards from the firetower.

I did a quick drive by along the Paradise Visitor Center and found a mother, Blondie FOX with a kit. Several SOOTY GROUSE were found near the Visitor Center but the males were not in full display. Two pairs of Pine Grosbeaks were found near Reflection Lake and around the lower areas by the Visitor Center. FOX SPARROWS were singing in full force and always nice to hear!

Not extremely birdy but you can never have a bad time at Mt. Rainier!

Good birding,

Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon)